This is SOOOO Good!
I remember years ago before deciding to become more observant and keep Kosher, and before finding out I had CD, a trip to Cape Cod where they had just put in a UNO Pizzeria and restaurant. We were staying on the beach, it was fall and our room had a fireplace, a hot tub and a view of the ocean. What more could you want, right? Well, we were hungry and didn't feel like eating at any of the wonderful array of restaurant they had there and where going to get seafood take out when we stopped by the Airport to get a bottle of wine and I saw the Uno's. ( For those unfamiliar, UNO's is a chain of pizzerias that makes the most delicious deep dish style pizza (Chicago style). So I said, hey, you feel like some Pizza? so we went and perused the menu, got something that went with whatever wine we picked out (it's been a long time ago) and took it back to the hotel. It was one of the best pizza's I'd ever eaten, and it could have been the atmosphere, fireplace, hot tub, jazz on the stereo, but although that helped, later trips to Uno proved that the pizza was excellent.
I especially liked the crust, it was buttery and reminded me of a lower calorie croissant. Years later when I was no longer eating out for lack of Kosher restaurants, I started to experiment with making my own.
I came across a recipe for a brioche crust one day and that became one of our favorites. I even used it to wrap Hebrew National dogs in and bake to have instant hot dogs in a bun, the kind of bun you don't throw away most of it and eat the dog, but throw out the dog and eat the bun! I would add some dry mustard to the mix which made it even better. But alas that was a wheat flour dough and it went bye-bye along with all my other favorites I used to bake.
Recently I got a hankering for that crust and started thinking if I could make the recipe GF? Now I haven't perfected it yet, but it did taste very similar and brought back some good memories. ( If you recently are diagnosed and have been to an UNO's you may disagree, but the further you are away from it, the better it matches with your memory!
)
So this is what I did. We had fresh tomatoes and basil from the farm, got some GF and Kosher fresh mozzarella cheese so what better time to try it?
Here's the recipe and directions.
1 1/2 cups Bob's Red mill GF All purpose Baking Flour (garbanzo flour, potato starch, tapioca flour, sorghum flour, and fava flour)
1 1/2 cups Gluten Free Pantry Beth's GF All Purpose Flour (White Rice Flour, Potato Starch, Tapioca Starch, Guar Gum, Salt)
1/2 tsp Salt ( sea salt if you have it)
1/4 butter
1/2 milk
2 large eggs cracked into a small bowl and slightly beaten
2 1/4 tsp dry yeast
1/4 cup warm water ( 110 degrees)
2 tbsp light brown sugar
Take the yeast and add it to the 1/4 warm water along with the sugar, let it 'proof' at least 5 minutes while you prepare the rest.
In a small saucepan, heat milk and butter just until the butter melts but the mixture is not hot. If it is let it cool a bit.
Measure out the ap flours (notice I combined these because one is more rice flour and starch and the other has heavier flours? I think it made the right blend for the original flavor and was not grainy) and add the salt to them. Into a large bowl ( 4 qt) sift your flours (I use a small wire strainer because I threw my sifters away so no contamination and this serves double duty).
Make a well in center and add eggs, milk and butter mixture and the yeast and sugar mixture. Stir together until all incorporated and then leave in bowl to rise about 1/2 hour.
Prepare pizza pan with a tablespoon of olive oil or a bit more so it won't stick. With a spatula coated with oil (silicone spatulas work best) scrape out dough into puddle of oil in center of pizza pan.
Carefully start spreading the dough outward to edge of pan. You really won't get a raised crust here but you just leave it without and toppings and it looks the same.
Turn your oven on for one minute on low while you are spreading the dough, set your timer for 1 minute so you don't forget and leave it on! Shut off oven and place pan inside. If the top doesn't look like it is oily enough you can use a spray oil on top to help keep it from cracking. Let rise in oven for 45 minutes to an hour.
Meanwhile prepare your toppings. I used fresh mozzarella sliced, tomatoes sliced thin and chopped basil and chopped Kalamata olives (Krinos brand are Kosher and Gf).
Also some dried Italian spices ground up a bit in the mortar and some olive oil. I also had some fresh red peppers and onions on hand and chopped them and sauteed them to caramelize them.
Once it's risen, remove from oven and set oven to 375 degrees. Bake for 15 minutes then remove from oven and let cool or you can put your
toppings on right away and then bake until cheese melts.
Oh, before putting into oven to rise I shook a little garlic powder on the crust,
you don't have to but it gives it a good flavor.
Take your olive oil cruet and drizzle some OO on top of the crust, then sprinkle on the ground dried herbs.
Then start adding your toppings.
First I put the fresh mozzarella,then topped that with the
sauteed red pepper and onion mixture, and the chopped Kalamata olives. Then I added the fresh basil and tomato slices and finished off with the rest of the slices Mozzarella (I used 2/3 of a pound for the bottom and 1/3 for the top) and then drizzled it all with some oil and a sprinkle of salt.
Return to oven and bake until cheese melts.
Slice with regular pizza cutter and enjoy! You will need to eat with a fork and knife just like the Uno's. It is a bit crumbly,
but not too bad and it reheated well as leftovers.
I will work on trying to get a chewier texture by maybe adding a bit of Xanthun gum or perhaps more egg whites and will let you know the results. If you try this, let us know how you like it and if you change something how it came out!
It was delicious and I will be making this again soon!
The recipe is an adaptation of one found in the Complete book of Pizza by Sassafras Press, not sure if it's still in print or not.
If you have a bread machine that is uncontaminated you can use that to mix your dough, that is what I did. After preparing your yeast mixture and milk and butter mixture as above ( make sure milk isn't hot at all, just warm) pour these into your bread machine. Set machine to manual ( mine has a 50 minute cycle) Add eggs ( you don't have to pre mix them) and turn the machine on. It will mix the wet ingredients together and you can then add the flours and salt through your sifter or strainer a little at a time giving it time to absorb. Scrape down with spatula the sides and then let it go through the manual cycle. When done follow instructions to scrape out dough into pizza pan and go from there.